"Dilan United Magic Academy..."
Casper leaned forward slightly, both hands pressed to the map on the table, and spoke with a touch of wonder. "I never expected the Nightingale Kingdom's first magic academy to be out near Konsti, rather than in the capital at Dilan."
He was a boy with short black hair and one streak of pure white dyed through it, of moderate height and handsome features, his left pupil blood-red and his right pale gold, an easy, indolent smile at the corner of his mouth that made him look unusually sunny and answerable to nobody.
Rather at odds with that harmless face, Casper wore a warrior's long robe of remarkably fine black material, the flax-coloured shirt beneath it left a little open, two classical longswords slung at his waist. He looked thoroughly capable of a fight.
"Because a great many students in the capital who need to learn magic have private tutors, and never choose to go to a magic academy at all... I was one of them."
Philia smiled, a little bashful, and it was terribly cute.
Her deep-blue hair spilled to her waist and waved at the ends as though it had been curled; she had a pair of amber eyes, a fine and gentle way of holding her expression, and a face as cute as a pet's — all of which had earned Philia a great many suitors and admirers.
Her pale-blue formal gown was long-sleeved in the European noble style, proper and precisely correct, lined in pure white with an ink-black ribbon bow at the collar, binding her proudly high bust tightly in; of her upper body only her slender little hands showed, and the elegance of it was total.
But the layered, elaborate skirt was short enough to leave the absolute territory bare, and the suspendered white stockings sheathing her rounded legs brought the girl's allure out in full.
Philia would never originally have planned to wear something like this, balanced right on the edge of what dress etiquette allowed, still so charged with youth and enticement.
But Casper — that boy really was a blockhead! Waaaah!
She wanted, wanted him to look at her a few more times...!
Even if dressing like this might violate royal etiquette for a lady... even if she was a little ashamed of herself... she was willing!
Thinking about it left Philia rather cross, cheeks puffing out like a hamster's.
From the shadows in the corner of the room, a small figure came slowly out.
"Oi, oi. How much longer are you two going to flirt? I did say we were leaving."
Philia stood up and shot back, cheeks puffed. "We are not!"
"Riiiight."
The figure was tiny in the extreme; Casper had to look down to see her at all, and the witch's pointed alchemist hat she wore covered most of her head, so that her face was hidden and only her fine, knee-length lilac hair showed.
"Honestly. Philia is bearable, but Casper, why must you have grown so tall! You forever oblige me to tilt my head back merely to meet your eyes!"
"I'm not that tall, am I..."
Casper scratched at his black hair.
He was somewhere over one meter seventy, he thought. Surely that was fine?
"Hmph. Either way it is all your fault~ I shall punish you!
Your punishment is to carry me out in your arms. Then you shall not be able to look down on me any longer!"
As she said it, the small loli in the pointed alchemist's hat tipped her head back, revealing eyes bright as crystal and snow-white lashes.
The Nightingale Kingdom's royal archmage of antiquity, a world-class being of arcane secrets, private tutor to Philia Soren — Connie Holno!
Connie had lived close to ten thousand years and her build was still as small as a loli's, no more than about one meter twenty. She wore a deep-purple shoulder-cape jacket worked with intricate arcane patterns, and a small navel-baring blouse cut with a suit collar that made a point of showing off a carefully pressed-together shallow line and a slender, snow-white stretch of stomach.
A pleated short skirt with the same arcane patterns, thick striped stockings, little boots brimming with magic...
As Connie announced her demand in triumph, Philia refused, cheeks puffed:
"Teacher Connie, Casper is responsible for standing watch and protecting us. He can't be indulged like that!"
"Honestly~ Philia truly is stubborn about these royal requirements. Ten thousand years, and the Sorens have not changed a whit~"
"What do you mean! This is for the sake of safety..."
Casper, faced with the sweet, soft, noisy squabbling of the two of them, could not help affecting complete unconcern and looking out of the floor-length window at the clean white clouds.
Th-this was awkward...
Well. In his position as the crown princess's specially engaged temporary guard, Casper judged that keeping quiet was the more correct choice.
Lady Philia and Madam Connie were both very cute and very alluring, but he still couldn't get a read on what either of them was thinking, and it was entirely possible they were only being polite to him.
In any case, the hour of departure had come.
***
Thousand-Fathom Valley.
Inside the carriage, Philia lifted the gauze curtain and put her head out to look ahead.
A vast structure that pierced the clouds, sharp as a peak, stood at the very top of the long valley; all around it was either dense forest or bare waste, without a trace of human habitation.
Sitting at the front of the carriage with one knee drawn up, Casper spoke with real interest. "I didn't expect Dilan Magic Academy to be somewhere this remote."
"Yes, because studying magic requires ground open enough to test what a spell does and how hard it hits."
Philia answered gently.
So that was it... Casper gave a small nod.
It seemed Grand Duke Soren had ringed off that great open garden in the heart of Konsti, where land cost its weight in gold, for the same reason: so Connie could guide Philia through her magic practice to her heart's content.
"Still, Madam Connie could have used the arcane arts to send us straight inside Dilan Magic Academy, couldn't she? Then there'd be no need for a carriage."
Casper said again.
"That is so, yes."
Connie's voice came lazily from inside the cabin. "But Philia has come to Dilan for her graduation certificate and wishes to display her own level of magic, so it is better that I not interfere."
There were only three people in this carriage: Casper, Philia and Connie.
As for the driver — a small flight of ice sprites the size of fireflies, summoned by Philia, served as whip-hands and drove.
Since Philia and Connie could not settle which of them got to sit near Casper, and someone had to keep watch outside, in the end it was Casper who stayed on the driver's bench.
Some way off.
Behind the trees and scrub of the valley.
The deathly pale middle-aged lord let go with his left hand, and the monocular he had been holding turned into a puddle of fresh blood and fell.
"Lady Komachi! I've seen them! Philia Soren and her two guards are in the carriage!"
"So they've come at last!"
The orc lord and the werewolf lord were both thoroughly excited!
Komachi Yua sat in a high-legged chair of woven rattan and tipped her head back a little to signal her approval.
Even short as she was, she meant to look down on these three lords, and she turned that voice — gentle to the point of sultry — into something insufferable. "Mm, good.
Remember our strategy. They must be taken alive!
If any of you fools dares put the lives of Philia Soren or those two guards at risk... I will have your life first!"
Planting an undercover agent was worth a great deal more than a plain corpse; not one of the three lords or the assembled monsters argued, they only nodded hurriedly.
Besides, the "Soul-Draining Witch" had a formidable name. If she said so, then who really did go too far with Philia Soren would absolutely die on the spot!
"Then..."
Komachi Yua swept out a hand. "Go!"
The next second several hundred monsters roared and charged the carriage a short way off across the valley!
The three lords charged with them!
Up on the valley road.
Sitting at the front of the carriage, Casper turned his head and saw the several hundred monsters surging up from the valley floor to one side.
"What's this? Where did monsters come from? Are we ambushed?"
The Casper of an ordinary day, lazy and free of care, switched instantly into a fighting state, his hand settling on one of the classical longswords at his waist.
Blood-light bloomed in his crimson left eye!
"So be it. Fight first, and talk after!
Let this pack of monsters see just how far this newly awakened class of mine can go!"
Casper had drawn perhaps a third of the blade when his left eye, its sight suddenly enormous, caught the figure behind the distant treeline — the one who had just risen from the rattan chair.
"Eeeeek?"
Inside the trees, Komachi Yua jolted under Casper's stare, and even her generous swell shook with it. "What a sharp look! That, that must be Casper..."
She drew a small breath, then looked back at Casper from that distance and produced a showy smile befitting a witch.
How perfectly on-brand I am for the moment right before I lose!
"Mm... once the monsters are all dead, let's see how I get my life spared..."